Cami (aka Shesa Peppy Cami)

This is Cami...most often called Cami-do. Cuz, Cami do everything, and is very pleasant about it. She is my catch all, put pretty much anyone on. Probably one of the smartest if not the smartest horse I've ever owned.

I bought Cami on a mad. I was ticked off. I had just sold my 3rd, training 4th level gelding...because I just had to have the Hann mare. Well, that isn't the only reason I sold him. I sold him because he had broken a coffin bone a few years before, and everytime he fell on the forehand, tripped, seemed uneven I'd panic and think I'd broken him again. So, I didn't use him much, and sure didn't use him like he should have been used. I sold him to a woman as a trail horse...and have regretted it ever since. Have even tried to get him back...no go, no dice. My farrier laughed at me, and said, "You are never getting that horse back. She loves him. I keep expecting him to turn up on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." Yeah, Strider has it pretty cushy, with a lady that adores him. It would probably be culture shock to come home.

Well, I was supposed to get this Hann mare, five years old. I told a woman that was going down to this farm if the mare really looked suitable, just to pick her up. I already had a deal with the breeder. Well, the woman picked her up, and when I asked...her price had gone from $5000 to $7,500. The woman bought her. That hauling charge was a just a tad too steep for me. In retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't end up with the mare. Her gaits weren't very good, and she was a worrier.

So, me in a tizzy fit I start searching the horse classifieds. Am I looking for another WB dressage horse? Oh hell no. I decide I'm so bent, I'm over that and those people...screw them. I'm looking at cutters and reiners...going back to my roots so to speak. I find a yearling Camiseta Badger daughter over in Red Bluff...$5000, and chestnut. Allrighty, I like red horses. Well, I watch it for a few days, call the folks...they're willing to sell her for $3500. Sounds good to me...so I make the 3-4 hour drive over to Red Bluff.

I get to these folks' place. Very nice people. Cami is not quite what I was expecting...being a Camiseta Badger x Robs Prescription bred mare. She was kind of scrubby. Her front legs came out the same hole. She's a long yearling, and nobody has ever done anything with her. Oh...PERFECT.

So, me being the diplomat I am...and irritated I say, "There is no way I could see giving you more than $1500 for this filly." The woman should have told me to take my rude butt off her place, she would have been quite justified. It wasn't Cami's or the woman's fault I didn't get the Hann mare (blessing in disguise). The woman says, "Well, okay I think my dad will go for that, but I don't think he'd go any lower." In my little pea brain I'm thinking, 'Well crap, I just bought this dink. Now what am I going to do.'

Cami loaded well, even though she'd only been in a trailer once as a suckling or weanling. I hauled her home to Humboldt in a driving rainstorm. She rode like a trooper. I get her home late in the afternoon. She comes out of the trailer calmly and just looks around. I put her in a pen. She'd spook a bit...but she'd stand still, and drop her head and look. Hmmmm...at least she's thinking.

I didn't start Cami until she was four. She just looked too babyish until then. Her teeth say she is a year younger than her papers say. I'd be really questioning who she is, except that she's DNA'd.

I started giving sporadic lessons on her when she had about 60 days on her. Cami is the bomb. The first time I took her over to Elaine's after I started her Cami was quite the hit with Elaine. After working with her, Elaine reaches over, rubs on her gives her a pat and says, "You're just the little Einstein of the horse world aren't you." Elaine loves Cami...even if she can't move her way out of a paper bag.